I'm just getting started with GeoPy and have been running some tests
to determine the quality of the different available geocoders. I have
noticed that Bing's geocoder is more accurate than Google's (for my
purposes, at least), but instead of returning a zip code, Bing returns
<built-in function zip> rather than the zipcode. Any thoughts as to
why/ways to correct this?

Bing seems to be more consistent, only returning a single correct result rather than two results. The only issue is that Bing doesn't seem to want to return a zipcode, for some reason, rather it returns a string containing the address and <built-in function zip>.

Okay, that looks like it was the issue. I had a friend run the code and he got the same results as you. It looks like the problem, whatever it was, was resolved in GeoPy 0.94.2. Uninstalled 0.94.1, installed 0.94.2, and it's all good now.
–
alukachMar 21 '12 at 22:43

1 Answer
1

Not sure if this would help, but you could use an address verification provider that includes geocoding. I'm a developer at SmartyStreets, just such a provider. Check out this example JSON response (scroll down).

Google and Bing are great address approximation services but you can run into trouble with their license agreements depending on what you're trying to accomplish. We offer a free forever plan for low-usage customers, and it's absolutely free to non-profits.